A Grim Tour of the City (1)
Morning, and the sun was already high overhead.
The moment I parked the rattling old truck in the yard, I had to walk straight into a barrage of scolding from the two of them, the exhaustion of a household head coming home completely forgotten.
"Unnie, what time do you think it is?! The sun's already up!"
"And look at the state of that truck! It's caked in mud! How are we supposed to go to the mart like this?!"
Hana and Poppy had thrown open the front door to greet me, and they were far more furious about the possibility of today's outing falling through than they were about the mud mask covering me from head to toe.
Hearing them nag like that actually put me at ease. Seeing them sulk because a promise might get broken was a hundred times better than watching them worry I might have gotten hurt. I could only get scolded like this because I'd come back in one piece, after all.
I waited for their chorus of complaints to die down, then played my trump card.
"Then how about we just head into the city while we're at it? We'll grab a nice lunch while we're out."
At those words, both their faces lit up as if the anger had never existed.
"Really? The city? Yes!"
But the joy lasted only a moment. Hana looked me up and down again.
"I think you should wash up first, Unnie."
Poppy chimed in, already excited.
"She's right! If we're going into the city, you've got to pretty yourself up too, Unnie! Don't just wear those work clothes like always!"
I wasn't sure makeup was necessary for a ride in a junker truck, but I didn't have the energy to argue about it. I just wanted to wash up and close my eyes, even if only for ten minutes.
"Alright, alright. I'll go wash up."
I soothed the two of them and hurried inside.
It was the height of summer, but as the warm stream of water loosened my muscles, a hum slipped out of me before I knew it. Had turning into a woman made me take joy in little things like this? I didn't really know why. It felt good all the same.
Coming out of a refreshing shower and changing into soft, everyday clothes felt wonderful. Underwear, though—that was always a hassle, always a burden. If I walked out in just a T-shirt, I was guaranteed a double helping of nagging from those two. I let out a long, deep sigh, put on even the constricting underwear properly, and only then stepped out of the bathroom.
The moment I finished showering, I went straight to my room and collapsed face-first onto the bed. The instant I closed my eyes, sleep poured over me like a waterfall. Even a body that had grown younger and stronger apparently had its limits after rolling around a mudflat since dawn.
Just as well. If I slept this deeply now, I wouldn't doze off later on the drive into the city. As my consciousness drifted away, I sank into a deep sleep, picturing a pleasant outing with the kids.
How long had I slept?
When I actually woke, I found myself wishing the world outside the window had gone dim with evening. Hana would have looked apologetic and told me she hadn't had the heart to wake me, I'd been sleeping so soundly. Poppy would have pouted like it couldn't be helped and grumbled that I had to take them next time for sure.
But that was nothing more than wishful thinking.
I lifted my heavy eyelids and looked out the window. Blinding sunlight was pouring in. It was the middle of the day. The clock beside the bed pointed to exactly twelve. True to form for the ever-loyal Hana and Poppy—I'd asked them to wake me at lunchtime, and they'd woken me at lunchtime on the dot.
I let out a hollow laugh and sat up.
Folded by the bedroom door were the going-out clothes Poppy had already picked out for me. I sighed once and started changing into the outfit she'd laid out.
My sense of dressing was still stuck in a man's habits, and Hana always insisted on nothing but the practical. Poppy was different from both of us. Whether it was because she was a rabbit, or simply thanks to her neat, eager nature, she had a real knack for putting an outfit together.
Once I'd changed and looked in the mirror, the person looking back at me seemed like an ordinary young woman. When I stepped into the living room, Hana and Poppy, already dressed to go out, looked like girls their age as well. If you covered the dog ears and the rabbit ears, anyone would have taken us for young sisters heading out for a day together.
The only problem was that those young women were about to ride into the city in the beat-up blue truck standing in the yard.
Practically herded along by Hana and Poppy, I climbed into the driver's seat. Clunk. The old door shut with a sound that seemed especially loud. I glanced at the two of them, sitting side by side in the passenger seat and the back, buzzing with excitement, and said with a wry smile,
"A bunch of pretty young ladies going out, and the thing we're riding in is this junker. Sorry about that."
Poppy shook her head, beaming.
"Well, you're not wrong~ But I like this one! The ceiling's high, so my ears don't get squished!"
Hana nodded quietly.
"I find this one comfortable, actually."
The two of them, bless them, didn't put up a single complaint.
Leaving behind a dawn thrown into chaos by the mudskipper incident, our beat-up blue truck rattled its way toward a downtown that didn't suit it in the slightest.
Once we'd left the familiar seashore and forest roads and pulled onto a wide highway, a landscape utterly different from the countryside unfolded before us. The road signs listed not only destinations, but the locations of Dimensional Anomaly Shelters as well. Instead of "Drive Safely," the electronic billboards flashed warnings in red of areas where anomalies were expected.
ANOMALY-EXPECTED ZONES
ALERT LEVEL RAISED
The closer we got to the city, the grimmer it all became. On every hill with a good view, in every plaza where people might gather, military flags had been planted without fail, and people who were unmistakably soldiers kept a tight watch on the surroundings.
In the old days, a trip into the city would have been filled with the excitement of seeing things you couldn't find in the countryside. Now, going into the city meant walking into a place this tense, this tightly guarded.
We drove a long while down that heavily guarded road before we finally reached the tollgate into the city. Once we passed that gate, I thought, we'd at least be able to leave that suffocating scenery behind. But at the tollgate, soldiers armed with rifles were stopping every vehicle that came through for inspection.
I eased the truck forward and stopped in front of the checkpoint. A young soldier approached, gave us a short salute, then started sweeping the truck bed and undercarriage with the others. I rolled down the window and asked him,
"I hadn't heard there were inspections today?"
"All of South Chungcheong has been declared an anomaly risk zone. We've been raising the alert level as of today."
He answered in a dry, flat voice, then flicked a glance over Hana and Poppy inside the truck. I could feel his gaze lingering for a moment on the tops of their heads. From the passenger seat, I heard Hana swallow a small breath. Poppy in the back hadn't moved a muscle for a while now.
"Ah… I see. Do you need to see a license or ID?"
"No, ma'am. You're cleared. Thank you."
The soldier saluted once more, and we were finally able to pass through the tollgate into the city.
"Honestly, that just killed the whole mood."
In the rearview mirror, Poppy was pouting and grumbling. Hana nodded without a word. They'd been wound tight from having armed soldiers staring straight at them. I could see the two of them, who'd been so excited, with their shoulders slumped.
Great.
I had a feeling that if I wanted to properly cheer them up today, it was going to cost me a fair bit of money.
The moment we entered the city, we headed for a big supermarket on the outskirts. In the old days, if you felt like it you could go to a department store in the shopping district—or if even that was too much trouble, you could order online and have a pile of packages on your doorstep the next day. Now the world had gotten harsh enough that if you wanted something, you had to come get it yourself. If I looked on the bright side, it meant I could take Hana and Poppy into the city more often.
The moment I stepped down from the rattling truck, the first thing I did was look up at the sky. The shimmer in the distance looked a little clearer than it had from the countryside, and more ominous. Just as the soldier at the tollgate had said, something really did seem to be coming.
Whether they could tell how I was feeling or not, the two of them already had their ears perked, chattering about what they were going to buy.
"Unnie, I want new clothes!"
"We should buy food first."
I put on as calm a face as I could and gave them both a push forward.
"Alright, alright. Let's go in and see."
Together, we stepped through the supermarket's automatic doors as they slid open with a noisy hiss. Far more people than you'd ever see at a country market were bustling about doing their shopping.
But there was something strange about the scene. Most people had piled their carts high with bottled water, canned goods, instant ramen—shelf-stable food of every kind. At the registers, it wasn't uncommon to see someone arguing with a security guard over having exceeded the per-person purchase limit.
In the midst of that chaotic landscape, here and there, people with animal ears like Hana and Poppy—or people whose entire bodies were covered in shaggy fur—stood calmly in line, waiting their turn. Not a single person around them stared or pointed as if they were a curiosity. People who used to snarl at each other over nothing more than a difference in skin color now treated the person standing next to them as just another person, whether they looked like a cat or a dog. The world really was a strange place.
Apparently frustrated that I was just standing there staring at the scenery, Poppy grabbed my arm and started dragging me forward.
"Unnie, we just got here and you're already spacing out? Come on, hurry up!"
With Poppy tugging my arm in that sharp, impatient voice, I snapped out of it in spite of myself and let her pull me into the noisy crowd.